MPC marketing email template: presenting a top candidate to companies without an open role

An MPC marketing email presents one strong, available candidate, your "most placeable candidate", to a hiring manager who has not given you a job order. It describes the person without naming them: three specific strengths, the pay they want, when they can start, and one line on why you are writing to this company. It asks for a short call, and the resume follows only once your fee terms are agreed. Send it only with the candidate's permission, and only to companies they have cleared.

This is not a candidate submittal, which goes to a client with an open role and names the candidate. It is the candidate-led part of agency business development; for approaches that lead with your service, a hiring signal or a past placement, use the business development email templates for recruiters. Below: how to pick the candidate, the consent conversation, how to anonymise without making the profile useless, four templates, a filled example and the sending rules.

Pick the candidate: five tests before you market anyone

MPC marketing works when the candidate is hard to find and easy to hire. If either half is missing, the email reads like a spec resume, and hiring managers learn to delete those. Run five tests on anyone you plan to market.

One candidate who passes all five is worth more than ten who pass three. Market one or two people at a time, each to a short list of companies, rather than sending every active candidate to every contact you have.

Get consent and a do-not-send list

Marketing someone is a submission in all but name. A hiring manager who reads the profile may know the candidate, play golf with their boss, or already have their resume in the ATS. Ask before you send anything, and write down the answers.

"I'd like to introduce you, without your name or current employer,
to a few companies that hire [role] but may not have posted a job.
If one is interested, I'll call you with the company name before
anything with your name on it goes to them. Is that OK?

Before I do:
1. Which companies should I never approach? Your current employer,
   its parent or sister companies, anywhere you left recently,
   anywhere you've applied or interviewed in the last year.
2. Is there anything in the profile you'd rather I left out?
3. What's the lowest total pay you'd seriously consider, and the
   longest commute or fewest remote days you'd accept?"

Record the date, the do-not-send list and the pay floor on the candidate's record, where every recruiter in the agency can see them. When a company responds, you still need consent for that company and role before the name goes out; the right to represent template covers that step.

Anonymise without making the profile useless

The profile has to be specific enough to be interesting and vague enough that nobody can identify the person. Details that are harmless alone become identifying together: a niche specialism, plus a small city, plus a named project is often exactly one human being.

Two more rules. Never attach the resume, even with the name blacked out; employer names and dates identify people in seconds. And give the expectation, never current pay. The expectation is what the hiring manager needs to decide whether to call, and current pay is the candidate's to share, not yours.

The MPC marketing email template

Keep it under about 150 words above the signature. The hiring manager should be able to decide in 20 seconds whether this person would help their team.

Subject: [Market title], [years] yrs, [the scarce thing], available [month]

Hi [first name],

I'm [name] at [Agency]; we recruit [function] in [region]. I'm
representing a [market title] I think your team would want to meet,
because [one line on why this company: a posting, a new site,
a system you use].

- [Result with a number: "cut month-end close from 9 days to 5"]
- [Scarce skill or credential: "active CPA; NetSuite and Adaptive"]
- [Scope: team size, sites, volume, budget]

Looking for: $[range] base, [on-site / hybrid / remote], [area].
Available: [notice period] notice; free to interview from [date].
Why they're moving: [one honest line].

They haven't applied to [Company], and nobody at [Company] has seen
this profile from me before. Worth 15 minutes this week to hear more?
If it's not relevant, a one-word reply is fine.

[Your name], [Agency], [phone]
This is a promotional email from [Agency], [postal address].
Reply "unsubscribe" and I won't email you again.

Variation: an existing client who is not hiring right now

Subject: Not a role you've posted, but I thought of your team

Hi [first name],

When we spoke in [month] you said [their words: "we'll need a second
controller once the new site opens"]. I've just met someone who fits
what you described:

- [Result with a number]
- [Scarce skill or credential]
- [Scope]

$[range], [setup], available [date]. Our terms from [agreement name,
date] would apply. Would 15 minutes with me, or a conversation with
them, be useful before you open the role?

[Your name]

One follow-up, then stop

Hi [first name],

One detail I left out: [something new and concrete: a second
credential, no relocation needed, a flexible start date].

I'll assume this isn't a fit unless I hear from you by [day].
Thanks for reading.

[Your name]

Send it as a reply in the same thread, three to five business days after the first. If the candidate is interviewing elsewhere and has agreed you can say so, say so; if not, leave it out.

When the hiring manager asks for the resume

This is where agencies lose fees. "Sure, send it over" is not an agreement to pay you. Confirm terms in writing, confirm the company with the candidate, then send.

Subject: Re: [original subject]

Hi [first name],

Glad this is of interest. Before I send the name and full resume,
here are our terms for an introduction: [fee]% of first-year base
salary, [guarantee], invoiced [on start], and the introduction stays
valid for [months] from the date I send the resume. Full terms
attached.

If you reply to confirm, I'll check with the candidate today and send
the resume and a short summary within [hours] hours, with times they
can talk.

[Your name]

Keep the dated reply on the candidate's record and on the company's. If the hiring manager later says they found the person on their own, that email is your evidence. For pushback on the terms themselves, see how to negotiate recruitment fees.

A filled example

An invented candidate, agency and company, written the way a strong MPC email reads.

Each bullet is something Marcus can test in an interview. The pay line removes his first objection, and the "why moving" line answers the question every hiring manager has about a candidate they did not advertise for. And the candidate cannot be identified from it: three plants and a finance consolidation describe many companies, not one.

Build the list of companies

Ten to twenty well-chosen companies beat two hundred. Build the list in this order and stop when you have enough:

1. Existing and past clients that hire this profile, including those not hiring now. They know your terms and your work.
2. Companies advertising adjacent roles. A posting for a cost accountant suggests a growing finance team; one for a plant manager suggests a site that will need a controller.
3. Companies with a visible trigger: a new site, an acquisition, a new leader in the function, a funding round.
4. Competitors of the candidate's employer, only those the candidate cleared. These are the likeliest to recognise the person, so anonymise harder.

Write to the hiring manager, not a general HR inbox, and not a talent acquisition team with a stated no-agency policy. Personalise the "why this company" line for each; the rest can stay the same. Check every name against the candidate's do-not-send list and against your own CRM: if a colleague is already working a search at that company, talk to them before you send.

Sending rules for marketing emails

An MPC email promotes your agency's service, so in the US it is commercial email. The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide for business says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. As summarised there, as of September 2026:

• Header information must be accurate, and the subject line must reflect the content of the message.
• The message must disclose clearly and conspicuously that it is an advertisement; the guide says you have leeway in how you do it.
• It must include a valid physical postal address. A PO box registered with the Postal Service, or a registered private mailbox, counts.
• It must explain how to opt out. A reply email is an acceptable mechanism, and you must honor an opt-out within 10 business days.
• The guide lists penalties of up to $53,088 for each email in violation.

This is a summary, not legal advice. Emails to people outside the US fall under other countries' laws, some of which require consent before you send, so check before you market across borders. In practice: send one at a time from your own mailbox, keep a suppression list in your CRM, and treat an opt-out as applying to every recruiter in the agency.

Track sends and handle replies

Log each send: candidate, company, contact, date and outcome (no reply, not now, call booked, terms agreed, interview). After a round of ten to twenty you can usually tell whether the problem is the candidate (no interest anywhere), the list (the wrong companies), or the email (replies that ask the same question the email should have answered).

• A call is booked. Treat it as an intake. The intake meeting questions turn "tell me more about this person" into a real brief, which may fit someone else on your desk too.
• "Not now." Ask what they will need and when, and put the date in your CRM. It is a warm lead for the next role.
• "Keep the profile on file." Usually a polite no. Do not send the resume without a call and terms.
• Tell the candidate the same day which companies have shown interest, before any name is released.

MPC marketing mistakes and the fix

The bullets are only as good as your screen notes. Exact results and scope come from what the candidate said on the call, not from what you remember afterwards. If you screen with a transcription tool such as Interview Signal, take the numbers from the transcript, and tell the candidate at the start that you take notes that way; the consent guide has a line to read aloud.